Here comes the fun – JAH WOBBLE & TIAN QIYI float downstream on ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’

JAH WOBBLE and TIAN QIYI rework ‘Tomorrow Never Knows,’ the first offering from upcoming ‘Mystic Liverpool: The Beatles’ Psychedelic Psongbook’ long-player (Cherry Red Records/30 Hertz) due August 14.

The closing track on the 1966 ‘Revolver’ album, ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ was written by Lennon and McCartney but Wobble (aka John Wardle) and sons John T Wardle and Charlie Wardle (aka Tian Qiyi) reframe the classic with a mix of Chinese, Mongolian and dub traditions.

“The track that flipped it for me as a kid was ‘Strawberry Fields Forever,’” said Wobble. “I didn’t have the language for what was going on in that song – I just knew it was more than music. The words you’d reach for are the ones people use about psychedelia: ego dissolution, a sense of unity, cosmic connection. I consider dub music to fit into the psychedelia genre, and John T grew up listening to dub, so Mystic Liverpool was always going to have that sensibility.”

The album moves through The Beatles’ psychedelic-era songbook with Eastern instrumentation, drawing on Wobble’s signature dub bass, John T’s drums, Chinese percussion and yangqin, Charlie’s erhu and vocals, with their version of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ seeing the boys’ mother, Zi Lan Liao, joining on gu-zheng.

Jointly produced by Jah Wobble, John T and Charlie, the album was recorded and mixed by John T at Liverpool’s Pagoda Studios.

Connect with Tian Qiyi  HERE  Jah Wobble  HERE  and Cherry Red Records HERE